Identifying First Edition Beginner Books

A couple of years ago I posted a series of blog articles which provided identification points for the first fifty Beginner Books, and later collected them into one permanant webpage (see Identifying First Edition Beginner Books).

The articles included identification points for each book, and provided the publication sequence along with the back dust jacket graphic. In essence the titles listed on the back of the dust jacket are the key to identifying most of the early Beginner Books. These articles were the first time identification points were posted for this set of Beginner Books.

While the articles centered upon the publication sequence of the dust jacket backs, they did not provide a good navigational method to each book, and today’s post is purposed to correct the oversight.

Accessible First Edition Identification Points Helps The Hobby

Book collectors and booksellers tend to shy away from books without documented first edition identification points, or in cases where the identification points are not well understood. There is too much risk buying or selling the unknown collectible.

Over the past three years book collector and bookseller interest has increased in the non-Seuss first edition Beginner Books (the Younger/Hirsch Guide To First Edition Dr. Seuss books helped the hobby with the Seuss first edition Beginner Books). People have become more confident buying and selling first edition Beginner Books. The market for the later printings is also more robust.

One of my underlying purposes for this blog and the parent web site is to make first edition idenfication points more transparent and accessible for contemporary American picturebooks. In the long run I strongly believe this will strengthen the hobby.

Many traditional booksellers are not in agreement with this philosophy, since they profit from their proprietary knowledge of first edition identification points:

• Book collectors must rely upon them for this proprietary information.
• Proprietary knowledge of first edition identification points is a competitive advantage over less well-informed booksellers.
• Less scrupulous booksellers can make a windfall profit by purchasing books from a less informed public
  (Note: In open shop transactions, by rules of the trade, offers from reputable booksellers will be wholesale market prices for first edition books, even if the seller is unaware of the issue of their holdings.)

This traditional thinking impairs the hobby of collecting first edition American picturebooks. Proprietary and possessive ownership of first edition identification points:

• Limits the number of collectors who want to participate in the hobby.
• Limits the number of booksellers who want to participate in the hobby.
• Reduces the liquidity of first edition picturebooks.
• Suppresses the price/value of first edition picturebooks.

More people will enter the hobby as they learn first edition picturebooks are valuable collectibles. The books have a familiarity to a large number of people, and picturebooks are very accessible – most can be read and appreciated in moments. And we will continue our small part to promote the hobby.

Click on the front cover image, below, to the respective page for first edition identification points for each Beginner Book.

A couple of months ago we performed an internet search for the first editions of the first twenty Caldecott Medal books to determine the number of books currently being offered for sale, and similar to past searches, calculate the average selling price. This past week we performed a search for first edition Caldecott Medal books for the period 1960-to-1979, the second twenty. The searches were performed across multiple book sites, ABE, ABAA, and Bookfinder, and were filtered for first edition books with dust jackets, in VG- condition or better. We excluded ex-library editions, first editions without dust jackets, and dust jackets in poor condition. For the results of this survey please see the table below.

For the years 1960-to-1979 we found fifty-one first edition books currently for sale, with ten copies of Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are being offered, which greatly skewed the average asking price. With WTWTA included, the 51 books have an average asking price of $4,523. With WTWTA excluded the 41 books had a more modest average asking price of $353. In our survey the asking price was not adjusted to the condition of the book being offered, so use the average price judiciously, since the book and jacket’s condition has a major impact on valuation.

Five Books In Absentia

First editions for five of the twenty Caldecott Medal winners are not currently being offered for sale on the internet. Understandably it would be a seller’s market for pricing any of these in first edition issue with dust jacket. As was expected due to their scarcity Ezra Jack Keats’s The Snowy Day (1963) is not available nor Gail E. Haley’s A Story, A Story (1971). First editions in dust jacket for either book do not surface for sale very often.  

In addition to the two above, three other books surprisingly are not currently offered; Nonny Hogrogian’s Always Room For One More (1966) Ed Emberley’s Drummer Hoff (1968), and Gerald McDermott’s Arrow To The Sun (1975). I don’t think the three books are scarce in first edition issue – time will tell – however I did elevate their Scarcity index to ’8′ in the following table. Obviously, should a single copy surface, the offering price will represent a seller’s market with no competing comparables.

Four One-sies

Only one first edition copy of four other Caldecott Medal books were found. There is only one first edition copy of Nicolas Sidjakov’s Baboushka And The Three Kings (1961), William Steig’s Sylvestor And The Magic Pebble (1970), Hogrogian’s One Fine Day (1972), and Paul Goble’s The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses (1979). The offering price for One Fine Day is priced a bit low at $150; based on past experience, I don't think the book is too scarce. Nor do I think The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses is too scarce, and think the $413 being asked is a fair price.

Baboushka And The Three Kings is somewhat difficult to find, priced reasonably at $880, however I think the demand for the book is fairly modest relative to other Caldecott Medal books. By default I place a Collectibility Index of '7' on first edition Caldecott Medal books, then adjust for other factors, such as illustrator's or author's eminence, copies sold, and so forth (see Factors Affecting The Value Of Children's Books).

William Steig's Sylvester And The Magic Pebble is a tough get in first edition issue. The book is larger than one would expect, and beautiful to behold. Coupled with Steig's success as a cartoonist for the New Yorker, producing some 2,600 illustrations and over 110 covers for the magazine, and his creation of Shrek, which formed the basis for the Dreamworks movie series, the book is modestly priced at $500. I don't think this copy will be on the market very long. 

Note: Caveat emptor. I have no affiliation to any bookseller, their offering(s), or to the sale of any particular book mentioned on this site. The prospective book buyer must perform their own due diligence concerning the actual book, its issue points, its condition, and the reliability of the bookseller.

The ‘These Books Aren’t Old Syndrome’

With the exception of Where The Wild Things Are (see below), the first edition books currently on the market are moderately priced. A lot of the top tier children's booksellers have been in the business for decades, and I think the age of these books has snuck up on them, and by their influence the rest of industry. Decades ago, these books weren't old. Today, three of the books were published over fifty years ago. Over half of them were published over forty years ago. All the books in the survey are over thirty years old. Fifty, forty, and thirty years are by no means considered 'old' or antiquarian in the general book collecting market, but fifty, forty, and thirty years old IS old in terms of contemporary American picturebooks.

I've been collecting children's picturebooks for over two decades. Even now, I'm surprised the back-to-back Dillon winners Why Mosquitoes Buzz In People's Ears and Ashanti To Zulu are over thirty-five years old. It seems like only yesterday the two books were relatively new, published fifteen years past, and available with relative abundance. Not so it seems, today.

Obviously the demand for first edition Caldecott Medal winners have increased over the last decade, and copies have been absorbed into libraries and collections. Still, I was very surprised to see only forty-one copies of the books for sale, excluding Where The Wild Things Are. By and large the relative lack of copies on the market makes for a seller's market, with the bookseller having pricing power.

The Availability Of Where The Wild Things Are

There are 10 copies of the 1964 Caldecott Medal winner Where The Wild Things Are on the market, the highest quantity for sale for the books surveyed. The asking price averages over $21,000, and ranges from $35,000 to $12,500. The high prices are indicative of the high desirability/collectible of the book coupled with its relative scarcity. In my database of over 24,000 children's book titles, I give only two books a Collectibility Index of '10'; Cat In The Hat and Where The Wild Things Are. Even Curious George and Goodnight, Moon only garner a '9'.

Where The Wild Things Are has been a known collectible outside of the children's book market, so generalist booksellers have carried the book in addition to the children's book specialist. The book is routinely included in fine book auctions. These documented prices have become known, so book scouts and booksellers are on the lookout for first edition copies. Documented prices have escalated over the past two decades. Are ten copies too many? Should prices fall? I don't know. There is an adequate array of prices, book condition, provenence, and bookseller credence to provide the able and willing prospective book buyer an adequate range of selection. Ten copies seems about right.

The Precarious Balance: Scarcity and Demand for First Edition Picturebooks

As mentioned before, the collectability and scarcity of the 23,000 titles in my database have each been rated on a 1-to-10 scale (10 being most collectible and 10 being most scarce). These ratings are included in the table with the survey results.

As most experienced book collectors and booksellers know, the scarcity of a book has a major impact on its value in the market. Scarcity in and of itself does not drive value, but instead value results from a combination of scarcity and demand. For books, the scarcity-versus-collectibility equation is synonomous with the familiar supply-versus-demand equation taught in classical Economics. Scarcity represents the collective supply for the first edition book, while collectibility is the collective demand.

There are two different aspects of scarcity to be considered:

1. The existence of all first edition copies, inclusive of private & public collections
2. Consider only those first edition copies currently on the market

While the latter is of the utmost concern to the book collector and the bookseller when pricing a book within the current market, the former must be considered, if only slightly, when making a collectible book purchase with investment concerns. Since most librarians currently do not know how to correctly identify first editions of contemporary American picturebooks, it is problematic to query libraries/institutions using Worldcat to understand the population statistics for such books. Still, keep this in mind as the hobby matures. Eventually, libraries will house first edition collections of Caldecott Medal books, Seuss books, and the like, so querying Worldcat while not be as futile. To read more about Scarcity and Collectibility, see Part 8 of my article on the Top 100 Collectibile American Picturebooks

One of my saved searches is completed books sold for over $300, to see what I might have missed, and to learn (there are some knowledgeable booksellers on eBay, and I often learn something from their descriptive  listings). A couple of months ago, a very rare item turned up in the Completed search, the following is the entire listing, verbatim:

A Happy Pair by Frederic Weatherly Hildesheimer & Faulkner Mini Cord Bound Book

A Happy Pair by Frederic E. Weatherly
Illustrated by H. B. P (could this be Beatrix Potter)
Hildesheimer & Faulkner Publishers
Soft cover Miniature Book with corded Binding
14 pages with gold gilt edges Book is 4 inches by 5 inches.
Designed in England
Printed in Germany
Color illustrations of two bunnies throughout
Cover front and back shows some wear including edge wear and soling.
Book in acceptable condition. Binding is tight. Pages are clean

Innocuous enough, even sparse. Surprising when, at least to me, on January 21, 2012 this little booklet (Item 220933184464) sold for $4,396.

As mentioned earlier, I often learn something from eBay auctions. In this instance, I’m not going to learn from the seller’s descriptive listing, but rather from what the seller omitted, and what I can discover on my own accord. After a little bit of Google Search, I came upon this 2001 article from BBC News, “Beatrix Potter Drawings Fetch £23,000” (the following excerpt © BBC News):

The best-preserved copy of the first ever book containing Beatrix Potter’s work was sold for £23,250 when it went under the hammer on Thursday.

The book, called A Happy Pair, was Potter’s first break in publishing in 1893 and includes her Christmas card illustrations alongside poetry by a different author.

The Peter Rabbit books were self-published at first A Happy Pair was published nine years before the first Peter Rabbit tales appeared, and only a handful of copies exist.

The £23,000 would be equivalent to around $36,000 at today’s exchange rate. It is notable the eBay copy is comparable in condition to the Sotheby copy.

After a little more research, I came upon “a lesser copy offered for $30,000” by Bauman Rare Books, an ABAA member bookseller (the following excerpt © Bauman Rare Books):

THE VERY RARE FIRST BOOK ILLUSTRATED BY BEATRIX POTTER, A HAPPY PAIR, 1890, WITH SIX CHROMOLITHOGRAPHS BY POTTER

(POTTER, Beatrix) WEATHERLY, Frederic E. A Happy Pair. London: Hildesheimer & Faulkner, [1890]. 16mo, original pictorial wrappers, original cloth ties with tassels, all edges gilt; pp. 12. $30,000.

First and only edition of a true children’s rarity: the first book illustrated by Beatrix Potter, one of the most elusive of all her works, known in only a very few copies (estimated as few as ten, although to our knowledge no formal census exists). With six lovely chromolithographed illustrations, each signed H.B.P. in the stone, and cover designs, all by Potter. A charming copy and an inestimable addition to any collection of children’s literature.

This little pamphlet bought on eBay is the rarest collectible children’s book I’ve seen on the venue. A very nice purchase for $4,400.

This mystery is explained by Dan Gregory at ILAB in his article “Why Are Some Dustjackets Clipped but Not Price-Clipped?“.

[...] this copy had four different prices on the front flap (clockwise from the top they were $3.95, $3.75, $4.50, and $4.95). By printing four prices in such a manner, the publisher, W.W. Norton, could leave the decision of the final retail price until later in the publication process.

After the books were printed, and just before the printed jackets were to be folded onto the bound books, two or three cuts to a stack of printed jacket sheets could quickly eliminate the unused prices. It also allowed the publisher, if he were so inclined, to market the book at different retail values in different areas.

In over twenty years of collecting books, this is the first time I have ever seen a book – thank Dan for the photo – with four different prices on the front flap. There are many books in my library with two prices, one top and one bottom, with unclipped front flaps, but none with four prices.

Dan explains that the dust jacket corners are cut by machine which is understandable when dealing with thousands upon thousands of books.

For children’s book collectors, I suppose one of the rare unclipped first editions would be Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are. In addition to the correct copy on the DJ flaps (i.e. no mention of the Caldecott Award), my copy has “$3.50″ on the top right of the front flap, which matches the description in the Hanrahan bibliography, and has the bottom right corner cut off. Hanrahan states:

It has a price of $3.50 (Horn Book mentions a library edition at $3.79) on the inside front flap [...]

I’ve never seen or heard of a copy of Where The Wild Things Are with an unclipped dust jacket, which includes the “$3.50″ trade price on the top right corner, and the “$3.79″ library edition price on the bottom right.

[Caveat emptor: I have no affiliation to the bookseller, nor to sale of this particular book. The bookseller, Raptis Rare Books is a reputable member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America.]

Here is the link to the item, The Little House, with the following description, courtesy Raptis Rare Books:

First edition of one of the rarest and most sought after children’s classics. Oblong quarto, original blue cloth. Light rubbing to the spine tips, a near fine copy in an excellent unrestored dust jacket that shows a small chip to the crown of the spine and some light wear. Small ink inscription opposite the title page. This book and dust jacket are usually seen with restoration, this copy is exceptionally clean and bright. “Once upon a time there was a Little House way out in the country. She was a pretty Little House and she was strong and well built.” So begins Virginia Lee Burton’s The Little House, winner of the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1943. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

There is only one, perhaps two, first edition Caldecott books which are harder to find.  This is one of the few first edition Caldecott Medal books not in my collection. Sigh. If only.

In 2007 a copy of The Little House sold at PBA Galleries auction for nearly $10,000.

The prices of first edition Caldecott Medal books have escalated in the past five years. Impressive in the face of the nation’s economy, this Great Recession.  The escalated prices have not resulted in additional first editions hitting the market. If anything, the opposite is true – there is less supply of first edition Caldecott Medal books on the market today than five years ago. In general, I think this applies to collectible first edition picturebooks.

Ironically it is not just the scarce books which are scarce. Even some of the more common first edition Caldecott Medal books are not available in numbers, making it a seller’s market.

The Heritage sale took place in the September 2011 Beverly Hills Signature Rare Books Auction. The link to the Curious George lot #37070 at Heritage (you will have to login to Heritage to see the final sale price).

Lest one thinks first edition Curious George’s are popping up hither and thither, the seller of the 2007 book at PBA Galleries assures me that the Heritage copy is the very same book. 1stedition.net promoted the 2007 item, see Curious George First Edition Identification for photos of the covers, spine, dust jacket, and DJ flaps. Comparing the tears on the dust jacket confirms the two books are one and the same.

The Heritage Auction description:

First Edition of the Children’s Classic, In the Exceedingly Rare Dust Jacket

H. A. Rey. Curious George. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1941. First edition. Quarto. Unpaginated. Illustrations by the author. Publisher’s brick red cloth with Curious George vignette in black on front board and lettering in black on spine. Illustrated endpapers. Original dust jacket with $1.75 price. A couple of faint scratches to cloth on rear board. Original unrestored dust jacket is rubbed, with a few chips to extremities and spine ends; also with a few short closed tears and shallow creases at edges. Rear flap with Bullock’s Wilshire price sticker ($1.75). A remarkably crisp, bright copy in near fine condition. We could locate only one other record of this title in dust jacket selling at auction in the past 35 years, and that was this very copy. Extremely scarce.

A classic children’s book, Curious George burst upon the scene in 1941, a year after H. A. Rey and his wife Margret (both German Jews) had escaped Paris only hours ahead of the Nazis. The Reys had fashioned makeshift bicycles from spare parts and fled Europe with possessions limited only to clothes, food, and five manuscripts, one of which was Curious George.

Featuring one of the most beloved characters in children’s literature, Curious George has never been out of print, and the story of the curious little monkey continues to delight and entertain children seventy years after its first publication. A superb copy, in the remarkably rare original dust jacket. Estimate: $15,000 – up.

Obviously this $26,000 sale will impact the other first edition books in the H.A. Rey Curious George series. In addition – guilty by association – there will likely be a ripple effect on the other scarce high-end contemporary children’s picturebooks, such as Make Way For Ducklings, Little House, and the scarcer Dr. Seuss and Caldecott Medal books. A very nice copy of the first edition Little House sold for nearly $10,000 at the same 2007 PBA Galleries auction of the Curious George.

The 2012 Caldecott Medal winner is A Ball For Daisy illustrated by Chris Raschka (Schwartz and Wade). A Ball For Daisy is Raschka’s second Caldecott Medal, having won the 2006 award for The Hello, Goodbye Window. A Ball For Daisy is a wordless picturebook.

From the American Library Association’s website:

“In a wordless book with huge children’s appeal, Chris Raschka gives us the story of an irrepressible little dog whose most prized possession is accidently destroyed. With brilliant economy of line and color, Raschka captures Daisy’s total (yet temporary) devastation. A buoyant tale of loss, recovery and friendship.

“Chris Raschka’s deceptively simple paintings of watercolor, gouache and ink explore universal themes of love and loss that permit thousands of possible variants,” said Caldecott Medal Committee Chair Steven L. Herb. ‘A Ball for Daisy’ holds as many unique stories as there will be young readers and re-readers.

In addition to the two Caldecott Medals, Raschka won a Caldecott Honor award in 1994 for Yo!Yes? With three awards garnered, Raschka’s other first edition books will increase in collectibility.

A Ball For Daisy was published in May, 2011, some nine months ago, so most of the first editions have already been absorbed by the general population. Currently the first edition book is difficult to find in a retail book store. The books are back ordered at Barnes & Noble, and as of a couple of days after the announcement, were without a firm delivery date. One would assume a new print run, therefore later printings.

I queried eBay’s Completed Auction results, and found six first edition copies sold for over $50 within a week of the award announcement. One autographed copy sold for $150, and two other copies sold for $100. I’m unsure whether these are indicative of the market, or just panic buying by passionate collectors. We will know more about the supply-demand balance for first edition copies later in the year once the market has stabilized. First editions are certain to surface, but at what cost?

2012 Caldecott Honor Books

Blackout written and illustrated by John Rocco, published by Hyperion Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group

“A summer’s power outage draws an urban family up to their building’s roof and then down to the street for an impromptu block party. Rocco illuminates details and characters with a playful use of light and shadow in his cartoon-style illustrations. He delivers a terrific camaraderie-filled adventure that continues even when the electricity returns.“

Blackout is Rocco’s fifth children’s book. I did not find any first edition copies at bookstores in my area.

I love Rocco’s illustrations. His first book was Alice, authored by Whoopi Goldburg. He did a stint in Disney, and did some pre-production artwork for Shrek! He does the cover illustrations for the Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson books.

Grandpa Green, written and illustrated by Lane Smith, published by Roaring Brook Press.

“Elaborate topiary sculptures give visual form to memories in a wildly fanciful garden tended by a child and his beloved great-grandfather. Using an inspired palate, Lane Smith invites readers to tour a green lifetime of meaningful moments.“

The is Lane Smith’s second Caldecott Honor award, winning one in 1993 for The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. I acquired two first edition copies of Grandpa Green in Barnes & Noble.

Me … Jane, written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

“Watching the birds and squirrels in her yard, a young girl discovers the joy and wonder of nature. In delicate and precise India ink and watercolor, McDonnell depicts the awakening of a scientific spirit. A perceptive glimpse of the childhood of renowned primatologist Jane Goodall.“

I acquired two copies of Me … Jane in Barnes & Noble.

The Newbery and Caldecott Medals and Honor Book seals are property of the American Library Association and cannot be used in any form or reproduced without permission of the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions.

Searching For The First Twenty Caldecott Medal Books

We recently performed an internet search for the first editions of the first twenty Caldecott Medal books, similar to past searches, to determine the number of book currently being offered for sale. The searches were performed across multiple book sites, ABE, ABAA, and Bookfinder, and were filtered for first edition books with dust jackets. See table, below.

Across the twenty Medal winning books, there are forty-five first edition books currently for sale, with an average asking price of $869. In our survey the asking price was not adjusted to the condition of the book being offered, so use the average price judiciously, since the book and jacket’s condition has a major impact on valuation.

Five Books In Absentia

First editions for five of the twenty Caldecott Medal winners are not currently being offered for sale on the internet. Understandably it would be a seller’s market for pricing any of these in first edition format with dust jacket. As was expected due to its scarcity Robert McCloskey’s Make Way For Ducklings (1942) is not available. Somewhat surprisingly, one copy of Virginia Lee Burton’s The Little House (1943) is currently being offered for $7,000. First editions in dust jacket for either book do not surface for sale very often.

Similar to the last two years, there are no first edition copies of White Snow, Bright Snow (1948) and Cinderella (1955) currently for sale in the market. These two books are not as scarce as The Little House or Make Way For Ducklings so one would think the demand would eventually cause first edition copies to surface. In addition, there are no first edition copies of The Little Island (1947) or Leo Politi’s Song Of The Swallows (1950) on the market.

The Little Island, illustrated by Leonard Weisgard, is another tough find, in part due to authorship by Margaret Wise Brown, under the pseudonym ‘Golden Macdonald’. Books authored by Brown have an avid collectible following, with The Little Island being the eighth book she wrote under the Macdonald pseudonym. Brown passed away in 1952, and her final ninth and final ‘Golden Macdonald’ book was published posthumously in 1956, Whistle For The Train. While Weisgard illustrated hundreds of children’s books, his work in The Little Island earned his only Caldecott Medal.

Six One-sies

In addition to The Little House, mentioned above, only one first edition copy of five other Caldecott Medal books were found. There is only one first edition copy of Abraham Lincoln (1940), Many Moons (1944), Finders Keepers (1952), The Biggest Bear (1953), and Frog Went A Courtin (1956). Because of the lack of comparable books on the market, the booksellers have considerable discretion on pricing. Of the five, based upon my experience, I think Many Moons is not as scarce as the others.

Illustrated by Feodar Rojankovsky and written by John Langstaff, Frog Went A- Courtin is the first of two books by the pair, who colloborated on Over In The Meadow in 1957.

The Availability Of Madeline’s Rescue

There are 11 copies of the 1954 Caldecott Medal winner Madeline’s Rescue on the market, the highest quantity for sale for the books surveyed. The average asking price is a healthy $762, indicative of the high desirability/collectibility of this second book in the iconic Ludwig Bemelmans’ series. Expect prices to soften a bit as the copies get absorbed by collectors, but the long-term collectibility of the book is strong due to the success of the franchise and the book’s Caldecott Medal.

Madeline the first book in the series was published in 1939 and earned a Caldecott Honor award. It is unusual the sequel came fifteen years after the first book in the franchise; normally sequels follow much sooner. Madeline is a ‘tough get’ in first edition with dust jacket, so it is unusual to find several currently on the market. Several of those being offered are in a ‘Good’ condition or worse dust jacket. This higher availability often happens when the value of a first edition picturebook increases above $1,000. The knowledge of the book’s value gradually disseminates within the trade and hobby. More people have an eye out for the first edition book, and copies slowly surface in the market. The nicer condition copies are absorbed, and the poorer condition copies linger.

The Precarious Balance: Scarcity and Demand for First Edition Picturebooks

As mentioned before, the collectability and scarcity of the 23,000 titles in my database have each been rated on a 1-to-10 scale (10 being most collectible and 10 being most scarce). These ratings are included in the table with the survey results.

As most experienced book collectors and booksellers know, the scarcity of a book has a major impact on its value in the market. Scarcity in and of itself does not drive value, but instead value results from a combination of scarcity and demand. For books, the scarcity-versus-collectibility equation is synonomous with the familiar supply-versus-demand equation taught in classical Economics. Scarcity represents the collective supply for the first edition book, while collectibility is the collective demand.

There are two different aspects of scarcity to be considered:

1. The existence of all first edition copies, inclusive of private & public collections; and

2. Only consider those first edition copies which are on the market.

While the latter is of the utmost concern to the book collector and the bookseller when pricing a book within the current market, the former must be considered, if only slightly, when making a collectible book purchase with investment concerns. Since most librarians currently do not know how to correctly identify first editions of contemporary American picturebooks, it is problematic to query libraries/institutions using Worldcat to understand the population statistics for such books. Still, keep this in mind as the hobby matures. Event ually, libraries will house first edition collections of Caldecott Medal books, Seuss books, and the like, so querying Worldcat while not be as futile.

To read more about Scarcity and Collectibility, see Part 8 of my article on the Top 100 Collectibile American Picturebooks

A series of articles to select the Top 100 Collectible American Picturebooks, providing the rationale for each books’ inclusion, with an objective of providing readers with the context for valuing first editions within the genre.

Within the hobby value is a combination of scarcity and collectibility: very scarce and very desirable lead to very valuable. Scarcity is a function of the number of copies in the first printings and the subsequent attrition over time due to natural causes. Collectibility is more elusive, outlined heretofore as a complex intermingling of eight rated factors.

Myopia, Objectivity & Self-Serving Interests

The list of Top 100 Collectible American Picturebooks is my myopic perspective and not intended to be definitive, instead purposed as a vehicle for learning. Hopefully the vehicle fulfilled its purpose.

I am equally hopeful the reader has confidence in the objectivity of the books selected. While one cannot be entirely objective when rating subjective criteria, one can be entirely objective with motive for personal gain. Admittedly myopic, the Top 100 is not self-serving – I did not promote books which I own nor demote books I do not. Similarly I did not inflate or deflate the estimated market prices for first edition picturebooks I own or do not.

Of the Top 100 Collectible American Picturebooks, after twenty years of collecting more than 4,000 first edition picturebooks, I have sixty-four of the chosen ones in my collection. It is doubtful I will ever attain first edition copies of every book on the list. Sigh … Simply put, I don’t have the resources available to purchase the high dollar books, and the days are long gone of finding loose books in the wilds of eBay. At today’s estimated market prices, it would cost between $184,000-to-$240,000 to purchase every book on the list in at least VG/VG condition.

Money can’t buy what it can’t find.

Since one-third of the books are not currently offered for sale, it would take some level of perseverence to acquire each book on the list. Bless the ones who try, may their treasure hunting lead to good fortune. If someone engages a book scout to acquire the books, please – PLEASE! – provide me with a running account of the results.

Wading Into The Tide

From the introduction to this series of articles:

“[...] it is important to understand that booksellers make pricing decisions, while book buyers make valuing decisions.

Booksellers make pricing decisions based primarily upon the asking prices for comparable books currently in the market, sometimes research the history of comparable books sold, mixed with their experience associated with the book’s particulars (i.e. author, illustrator, genre, and so forth). While this is an oversimplified synopsis, suffice it to say pricing a book is more art than science. Buyers of collectible books are aware of ‘the art of pricing’, therefore understand the why’s and wherefore’s for a particular book’s offering price.

Obviously it is easy to assess whether the price is a fair price relative to comparable books on the market. But is it a good value? Since buyers of collectible books have limited resources – money – they must deploy it effectively. Effective purchase decisions are based upon more than whether a book is fairly priced relative to comparables, and instead weigh this price against the value of the book in the context of other elements. To help readers establish their own context, this series of articles will develop the list of Top 100 Collectible American Picturebooks and explain the rationale for each book’s inclusion. After the list is completed, the reader should have a good understanding for the context I use to classify most first edition picturebooks. “

If the reader remembers only one thing from this series of articles, it is important to understand that booksellers make pricing decisions, while book buyers make valuing decisions. Related to this, from the previous article in the series:

“Collecting first edition children’s picturebooks should be fun. But spending hard-earned cash money is serious business, and every collector wants their dollar stretched into the most effective purchasing instrument. It is unwise to do otherwise. Understanding the relative collectibility of a book, the factors which impact it, and having some knowledge for the relative scarcity of the book, are critical to assessing the book’s value in the market place. Book collectors cannot simply rely on the booksellers’ mechanism of assessing comparables to establish market price. This mechanism is not reliable for collectible children’s picturebooks.“

A future article will analyze the current pricing methods for first edition collectible American picturebooks. While most readers have some familiarity with book pricing in today’s market places, suffice it to say, the market for collectible children’s books is thinly traded, with little transparency and with just a sliver of historical data, vulnerable to manipulation, and dominated by market makers with vested interests in the outcomes. NASDAQ it is not. This is not to say the current system is crooked or cronyistic, just slanted a bit.

When a bookseller makes a pricing decision it is for the here and now. Book buyers must not only weigh this ‘here and now price’ against the book’s fair market price in the here and now, but also weigh the potential future price of the book in the there and when. If the current offering is by-passed, then what might the price be in some future hence? While this question smacks of appreciation, depreciation, and – OH MY GOSH! – investment considerations, it is what it is. Regardless if there is a yearning passion for ownership of a book which trancends the mere mortal boundaries of our current frail physical form, for humans with monetary constraints, an investment-type mindset must be employed when making purchase decisions regarding first edition collectible picturebooks.

This is not to say that first edition collectible picturebooks are good investments. This would be imprudent to say for the sake of personal liability. To be clear, I am not saying that first edition c
ollectible picturebooks are good investments.

Instead, I am suggesting that book buyers must assess the current market price of a book, against the potential future value of the book, in order to efficiently expend their limited  precious resource, which is cold hard cash. One aspect of this assessment is the value of the book in relation to the current market price, which is why it is important for the book buyer to have their own valuing strategy. I hope this series helps the reader with the tools to make this assessment.

The other key component of the assessment is the window of when – the time component. It makes a big difference whether the consideration is for one month hence, or one year, five years, or ten. Deferring the purchase adds risk to the decision, especially for scarce books. Scarce books tend to get scarcer over time (let’s not confuse ‘scarce books’ with ‘books perceived to be scarce’ – these are two very different animals), as the limited supply is absorbed into collections, never resurfacing again for sale. Never at least in our frail physical lifetime.

The supply of a first edition collectible picturebook will ebb and flow over time. The demand for a first edition collectible picturebook will ebb and flow over time. It is left to the reader to decide when to wade into the tide.

It Is Done

The Top 100 Collectible American Picturebooks have been selected. Not the most valuable, or the scarcest, instead the most collectible.  The eight major factors contributing to a picturebook’s collectibility were reviewed, a rating scaled was introduced, then the journey commenced selecting the books. The journey meandered through a “partially logical” selection process, rationales for various books were presented, scarcity discussed, values assessed, then finally each book’s collectibility was rated.

It, is done.

For those who persevered through this series of articles, thank you for your time and consideration.

A series of articles to select the Top 100 Collectible Children’s Picturebooks, providing the rationale for each books’ inclusion, with an objective of providing readers with the context for valuing first editions within the genre.

Within the hobby value is a combination of scarcity and collectibility: very scarce and very desirable lead to very valuable. Scarcity is a function of the number of copies in the first printings and the subsequent attrition over time due to natural causes. Collectibility is more elusive, outlined heretofore as a complex intermingling of eight rated factors.

A Cornerstone For Collectibility

This series was not about selecting the most valuable or the scarcest, but instead the most collectible American picturebooks. To that end, the first article in the series began with a recap of the Factors Affecting Collectibility for a first edition children’s picturebook:

The eight major factors contributing to a picturebook’s collectibility were reviewed, a rating scaled was introduced, then the journey commenced: selecting the Top 100 Collectible American Picturebooks. The journey meandered through a "partially logical" selection process, rationales for various books were presented, scarcity discussed, and values assessed. And now fully equiped, the journey turns toward the final stretch, rating the collectibility of the Top 100.

Using an ‘A’-to-’Z’ rating scale, with ‘A’ being the most collectible, and confident knowing that every journey into the unknown has to begin somewhere, I began by giving a ‘D’ to the collectibility of each Caldecott Medal book. I have some familiarity with this somewhere, since it is the same somewhere I used in rating the collectibility of the 23,000 books listed in the Children’s Picturebook Price Guide. Setting Caldecott Medal books as the cornerstone for the ratings makes logical sense since their collectibility is relatively well understood.

If the Caldecott Medal book had other factors going for it, such as an exemplary author or illustrator, then the rating could be nudged up a bit. Each of the Caldecott Medal books in the Top 100 list was nudged to and fro, thereby providing a reference point for the assessments for the other books in the list. A cornerstone was established.

Using this relative reference, each Dr. Seuss book was initially rated a notch higher, since, at this stage in the maturation of the hobby, the first editions tend to have a higher demand than Caldecott Medal books. With ‘C’ as the basis, the first edition Dr. Seuss books were nudged to and fro accordingly.

Once the Caldecott’s and Seuss’s were studiously rated and nudged, the rest of the Top 100 was similarly fashioned. Over the course of many months the ‘to and fro’ process was repeated, re-repeated, and re-re-repeated, repeatedly. Eventually the process came to a satifactory landing point, and the Top 100 Collectible American Picturebooks found their humble little Plymouth Rock.

The process, above, is outlined for the reader to understand that plenty of thought was placed into rating a book’s collectiblity. But it was fun. Serious fun.

Collecting first edition children’s picturebooks should be fun. But spending hard-earned cash money is serious business, and every collector wants their dollar stretched into the most effective purchasing instrument. It is unwise to do otherwise. Understanding the relative collectibility of a book, the factors which impact it, and having some knowledge for the relative scarcity of the book, are critical to assessing the book’s value in the market place. Book collectors cannot simply rely on the booksellers’ mechanism of assessing comparables to establish market price.  This mechanism is not reliable for collectible children’s picturebooks. More on this in the conclusion to the series.

Nudged Fro and To The Top

Two books nudged their way to the top of the Top 100 Collectible American Picturebooks, receiving an ‘A’ for Collectibility. Not surprisingly, the Cat In The Hat tops the list as the most collectible American picturebook, with Where The Wild Things Are second. It was a landslide victory.

Both books long ago made the radar screens of general booksellers – the first editions are not confined to only children’s bookselling specialists. If a mythical general book collector asked my advice on the two picturebooks to add to their collection, these would be the two.

From a collectible perspective, the Cat In The Hat has it all, plus some. A great story, a highly collectible award-winning illustrator, by a highly collectible award-winning author, the start of a publishing franchise, and firmly planted in American pop culture lore (in spite of a horrendous feature film adaptation). And not just in America; the Cat In The Hat is recognizable by hundreds of millions of people, perhaps billions, across the globe.

In addition the Cat In The Hat caused a societal change – the publication of the book changed the way children learn to read in America! This was not a planned change scripted by educators – it was a grass roots change resisted for years by public school administration. Only grudgingly did the grade school primers make way in the classroom for the Cat In The Hat and his Beginner Book kin. Because it changed the world
- really changed the world! – the collectibility of the Cat In The Hat is greatly enhanced.

Where The Wild Things Are is another great story from a highly collectible award winning illustrator, written by a highly collectible author, garnered the Caldecott Medal in 1964 for its illustrations, and is part of American pop culture (like Cat In The Hat, it survived the notoriety of a horrendous feature film adaptation). Initially disdained by parents for its dark undertones, Where The Wild Things Are was and is embraced by children.

The book made Maurice Sendak. Yes, he was successful prior to Where The Wild Things Are, having garnered several Caldecott Honor awards, but Sendak was known for his illustrations of other authors’ work, notably the Little Bear franchise books and the Ruth Krauss books. After the Caldecott was awarded for Where The Wild Things Are, Sendak had creative equity within the publishing industry to do what he wanted to do. Which he did, obstinately, as the controversial nude illustrations in In The Night Kitchen will attest.

The following orders the Top 100 Collectible American Picturebooks by Collectibility, and includes the book’s Scarcity, along with the ratings in the ‘factors affecting Collectibility’ discussed earlier in the series. The market price provided is for the first edition book with the corresponding first edition dust jacket, both in Very Good or VG+ condition. .

Twelve books were given a Collectibility rating of ‘B’, just a notch below the top pair (in the table, above and below, those with an equivalent rating are sorted chronologically). Savvy readers should be able to build the rationale for the rating for each of these twelve first edition books.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Polar Express nearly made the ‘A’ Collectible rating. Both books did the ‘to and fro’ between ‘A’ and ‘B’ a number of times. Each book earns high marks along all the factors affecting collectibility, with highly credentialed authors, illustrators, and are waaaaay big on the pop culture scale. But the deciding factor, at least for me, is the slight nudge fro due to the holiday seasonality as compared to Cat In The Hat and Where The Wild Things Are.

The only other book I considered for the top Collectibility rating is Green Eggs And Ham, since it is the bestselling Dr. Seuss book, with over 30 million copies sold. It doesn’t quite have the pop culture panache, but this could be too harsh a opinion, since the other factors overwhelmingly sway in the book’s favor. Either way, the first edition is highly collectible, and Green Eggs is the third book I would recommend to the mythical general book collector.

The other books were squarely in the ‘B’s, while Make Way For Ducklings, for a short time at least, was in consideration of an ‘C’ for overall collectibility. While the story, copies sold, illustrator, author, and Caldecott Medal weigh heavily in its favor, it too lacks a big pop culture punch, which impacts the demand for the first edition. Pop culture popularity brings a character, story, or book to the front-of-mind of millions of people. A small percentage of these people might develop a hankering for a first edition copy (the exact definition for "hankering", an archaic technical bookselling term, is beyond the scope of this article).

Of the fourteen books in the top two Collectibility categories, the collective hankering for a first edition Make Way For Ducklings seems relatively weaker than the rest. Make Way For Ducklings is one of the scarcest picturebooks around, and is required for a collector or institution to complete their collection of first edition Caldecott Medal books. This supports the high valuation. If the story crosses over into pop culture in a big way (i.e. feature film), then its Collectibility will be enhanced.

‘C’ a Dozen Dr. Seuss Books

Twenty-three books were rated a Collectibility of ‘C’, with an average value of $3,083, including twelve first edition Dr. Seuss books. This should not be too surprising. In an earlier article, sixteen first edition Dr. Seuss books made the Top 100 Collectible American Picturebooks. Thus far in today’s article, the Cat In The Hat was assessed the top spot, and three of Geisel’s books were rated a ‘B’ for Collectibility. That leaves twelve Seuss books remaining, and "Voilà!"

Four Caldecott Medal books nudged up into this category: Animals Of The Bible, Little House, Jumanji, and Tuesday. While not notoriously famous among the general population, Animals Of The Bible earned the high Collectibility rating due to winning the first Caldecott Medal, and is therefore a landmark for collectors of such books. Demand for first edition copies remains consistent. In retrospect, because of its subject matter, Animals Of The Bible is nearly a nostalgic curio – doubtful the American Library Association would select a Christian themed children’s book in today’s environment of religious neutrality. Ironically, since a library association bestowed the award upon the book, one could anticipate a time in the future where elementary school librarians quit stocking the book.

‘D’ Is For Difficult Assessing

Thirty-one books were given a Collectibility of ‘D’, see below, with an average value of $766, including fourteen first edition Caldecott Medal books. Five Caldecott Honor books nudged up into this category. That’s quite a nudge for a first edition Caldecott Honor book to be considered collectibly on par with a Caldecott Medal book.

Looking at the list of five, Blueberries For Sal, Journey Cake, Ho!, A Very Special House, Strega Nona, and Garden Of Abdul Gasazi, one can see these are a special group of books. The two Robert McCloskey books are scarce, and all his books are quite collectible since he won two other Caldecott Medal awards. A Very Special House is an early Maurice Sendak book written by Ruth Krauss, a highly collectible author. Garden Of Abdul Gasazi is Chris Van Allsburg’s first book, garnering the illustrious Honor award – of course his second book, Jumanji, won the Caldecott Medal. And lastly, first editions of Strega Nona, the first in a franchise, are scarce.

Several scarce first edition books are in this category, including Little Toot, Katy And The Big Snow, The Carrot Seed, Journey Cake, Ho!, and Marcia Brown’s Cinderella, each with a Scarcity rating of ’9′. Since there is little market data to rely upon I was conservative in valuing these books; potentially they could be valued much higher. Pat The Bunny and Runaway Bunny are also difficult to value.

The ‘E’nd

Thirty-two books were given a Collectibility of ‘E’ with an average value of $538. Staying with the same theme used throughout this series, the twelve Little Golden Books are kept together as one group, although if assessed individually, Poky Little Puppy would be in category ‘C’, and Three Little Kittens would be in category ‘D’. Their value reflects the higher demand for the first editions over the other LGB’s in the group.

Two of the Beginner Books, Put Me In The Zoo and Are You My Mother?, were issued in 1960 synchronously with Green Eggs And Ham, the three books marketed as the first Beginning Beginner Books (See photo to the right, with advertisement proclaiming "For BEGINNING Beginners"). Green Eggs targeted early readers with a reading level ready for 50 words, while the later two targeted early readers with a 100 word vocabulary. The success of these three titles eventually led to the creation of Random House’s Bright & Early Books in 1967.

First editions of all three books will have Beginner Books as the publisher, with Random House as the distributor, on both the copyright page of the book and the dust jacket. See the top photo on the right.

In 1960, at the time of their initial publication, Beginner Books was bought by Random House, and become a Division of the parent company. Later that year, the dust jacket was changed to reflect published by "Beginner Books, a Division of Random House", as in the bottom phot on the right. 

Even though the DJ was changed to reflect the change in ownership, the copyright page of the book still reflected the original issue. One could assume the books remaining from the initial print run were given new dust jackets. Therefore the first issue book WITH the first issue dust jacket is available in lower numbers than the publisher originally planned.

Collectibility & Scarcity, the Final Values

Any thoughtful bookseller or book collector would assume increasing collectibility would result in increasing value, other things being equal. Similarly, they would assume increasing scarcity would result in increasing value, other things being equal. I cannot guarantee ‘other things being equal’, only that the following table summarizes the value of first edition American picturebooks, in Very Good condition, along the lines of collectibility and scarcity.

While there are some slight discrepancies in the relationship of increasing value with increasing collectibility and increasing scarcity, by and large the table validates the assumptions. Whew!

The next article will bring the Top 100 Collectible American Picturebooks series to a close.